The life and struggles of Sultan Momin A Babul

During my stay in Netherlands, I met Sultan Momin A Babul, also known as Dr. Momin, one of the renowned Bengali UN Refugee. His campaigns of freedom, democracy & peace in the light of UN Human Rights proved to be a great success; through his works, the less privileged people of his Bengali area have gained a higher quality of life. After successfully studying HiTec.Ag. Engr. & Int. Political Science and Humanity from University in UK, NL, USA & Italy Momin returned to NL & BD and set up the PvdM Royal Dutch Human Rights Platform and carried out his KL Royal Dutch Army & UN/MFO-Peace Keeping Mission for the Middle East.

It may have been a culture shock for the young man upon arriving to Netherlands, during his early days. "Europe was thriving, so anybody who was not white was treated as inferior, second class citizen", says Momin. Thats when he decided to do something about this problem, and began his method of "passive cultural resistance and united-cooperation, inspiring from the achievements & works of Gandhi, Tolstoy, Moses, Jesus & Mohammad as his inspirations" says Momin. "It was by no means an easy ride" he says. However, he regularly endured terms of imprisonment, and was harshly beaten several times. Fifteen years of such campaigning resulted, when in 1971 due to the acts of the then Pakistan government, made him a child-soldier and after liberation of Bangladesh, he was freed from prison in 1977. "Father of the Nation Bangabandhu and his family was killed by Réligion political Party", he says.

After the release, Momin decided to concentrate on improving the life of ordinary people in his native Bangladesh. "His ideology was well received and he soon had a healthy following that regularly practised passive resistance. The Autocratic government didn’t like him campaigning and deemed it to be revolutionary. Consequently, Réligion fanatic government massacred many innocent Bengaleses at a demonstration in 1976" says Momin. This caused Momin to instigate a policy of non-cooperation towards the Réligion party. "Bengalis began removing their children from government run schools and masses of people began squatting in the streets to protest. Even when faced with physical punishments, such as being beaten with a truncheon, they would refuse to move" says Momin.

Ironically, the opposite of what he preached was starting to take place. He was thus again imprisoned and began fasting in protest. The Fanatic Govt. faced this pressure, because they knew that if he died whilst being wrongly imprisoned the repercussions from the native bengali people would be catastrophic.

In 1978 Momin was freed and was put under house arrest. He was against partition of Bangladesh though, wishing that those of Moslem and Hindu faith could live peacefully side-by-side. He was also very critical of the caste system, whereby some bengalis of high social standing deemed ‘untouchable’. Tragically, a crazed Réligion party member assassinated his father and Momin had to escape to NL now EU the land of Non-Death Sentences, as said by Momin. He has always believed that “life is the product of Nature/God/Bagwan/Allah therefore it has to be cared in humanity for a natural-death” "the main theme of PvdM", says Momin. Once in Netherlands, he submited the Bangabandhu's murder case to The International Court of Justice in The Hague and maintained the pressure to fight for justice. Which eventually took place, by a Fair Elected Democratic Govt. of Sheikh Hasina this year 2010.

If he had wanted, Momin could have lived a very comfortable life as an intellectual. Instead he devoted his life to prayers, fasting and meditation. He wore basic clothes and lived off fruit, vegetables and milk. He gave up his personal comfort to bring well-being to thousands of others to cry-humanity and now is dedicating himself to write & publish his book “Blood-Democracy” which is about to be finished and has recently received its ISBN number.

Further Momin says that, "he was lucky to get kind attention from Bangabandhu, the President of Bangladesh as he has studied with his son Sheikh Kamal in Air-Force Shaheen School, College and Dhaka University and kind attention from the late Prime Minister of India Srimoti Indira Gandhi and as a friend of her son late. Sri Sanjay Gandhi and President Carter, President Clinton & Senator Kennedy of USA and Yasir Arafat of PLO to remember for their goodwil meeting".